Regional News
What’s happening in your area?
WESTERN
Perranwell:
The Truro- Falmouth line station platforms sport early BR chocolate and cream running boards and totems again, following fundraising by the Friends Group. Penmere platform on the same route has been similarly treated.
EASTERN
Alnwick: The Aln Valley Railway has launched a £10,000 appeal to purchase coal from the local Shotton opencast site and stockpile it, before the site closes this summer. There is no other local source until nearby Highthorn is approved.
Leeming Bar: The Wensleydale Railway station house is being renovated with a new roof and interior incorporating a ticket office.
Queensbury: The Government has offered £4 million towards the reopening of the 1.4- mile
Great Northern Railway tunnel ( closed in 1956) as a cycleway connecting Halifax with Bradford and Keighley. However, the estimated cost of completing the project is £ 27.2m.
Whitby: The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has raised £ 350,000 to mitigate the effect of the Coronavirus lockdown.
White Rose: Planning approval has been given for the new Leeds- Huddersfield line station, serving the large retail centre.
MIDLANDS
Bakewell: The former Peak Rail station has been sold. It has been used as offices for many years.
Boughton: The Northampton and Lamport Railway can now complete its southern extension, after heavy repairs to the intermediate Bridge 11 on the former Northampton- Market Harborough line.
Sandwell: The new West Midlands Metro extension from Brierley Hill is beginning to take shape, with road closures taking place ready for bridge replacement.
Wingfield: Historic England has offered a £ 263,000 grant to help repair the Grade 2- listed former Midland Main Line station between Ambergate and Clay Cross, which dates back to the late 1830s.
NORTH WEST
Blackpool: Demolition in June of the Wilkinsons store paves the way for completion of the tramway extension to Blackpool North by May 2021, along with a new underpass, Holiday Inn and shopping centre.
Lea Green: St Helens Borough Council has been working up design options for the new station. It hopes to start looking for funds at the end of the year.
Skelmersdale: Lancashire County Council has approved the purchase of the former college for £1, to prepare for its replacement by a railway station over the next few years. Although cheap to buy, it will cost £ 2 million to demolish.
SOUTHERN
Greenhithe: Kent County Council has voted not to infill a disused tunnel under the Thames. This is in anticipation of it possibly being reused for the privately promoted Thames Gateway Tramlink ( KenEx) light rail system from Bluewater to Chafford Lakeside in Essex and Gravesend, with possible extensions to Dartford, Purfleet, Tilbury and Stanford- le- Hope.
ANGLIA
Cambridge: An interchange with the St Ives guided busway will be created at the site of the new Cambridge South station, approval for which was announced in June ( RAIL 908). The station will serve the biomedical campus and Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Target opening date is 2025.
Foxton: The Cambridge- Royston line station is to be massively expanded with a 750- space car park on its southern side, costing almost £ 9 million.
Manor Park: Services out of Liverpool Street station were disrupted on June 25 when a wall carrying high- voltage cables collapsed onto the line. It took 25 firemen to put out a blaze.
March: Three alternatives have been put forward for a revamp of the station’s main entrance area, which involves reorganising the layout of the waiting room, ticket office and providing a retail area.
LONDON
Southwark: Although the Jubilee Line Underground station was designed two decades ago to accommodate an 11- storey tower block on top of it, Transport for London’s latest plans are for a building half as tall again. If approved, the building will be of lightweight construction.
Stanmore: Transport for London’s plans to build flats on the Jubilee Line station car park have been modified, in order to keep 300 of the spaces and add step-free access to the long flight of stairs from the main road.
The station was not intended to be a terminus, but the Second World War halted plans to extend what was once the Metropolitan Line to Elstree as an alternative to a scheme to take the Edgware line further north.
Sudbury Town: For a second time, Brent Council has refused planning permission for 50 flats to be built on the London Underground Piccadilly Line’s station car park. It is unconvinced that they are a benefit to the area.
SCOTLAND
Aviemore: The future of the Cairngorm funicular has been cast into doubt once again, after a new report suggested it may cost up to £15 million to repair. It is a 50% increase on the last estimate.
WALES
Llanelli: The Goods Shed Trust has been awarded two grants totalling £ 390,000 towards the restoration of the old Great Western Railway goods shed and associated office annexe. It has taken ten years to get to this stage.
Llanpumpsaint: The Gwili Railway is investigating relaying track north from Dan- y- Coed, on an alignment it already owns. It will extend its operations to eight miles from Abergwili Junction.